AFRICAN-AMERICAN ACTORS PROTEST

PORT WHITMAN: Richard Seales, president of the African American Actors Guild of Port Whitman, led a recent demonstration outside KROK-TV, protesting the lack of African-American actors cast in roles of criminals such as car thieves, burglars and armed robbers in commercials for security alarm and crime prevention companies. Noting that the majority of the criminals that one sees on the evening news are African-American, Mr. Seales and his group are demanding that their members be proportionally represented in these ads. "This is one case where affirmative action isn't even necessary" stated Seales "If we are going to be displayed in the media as 'the criminal element' then as actors we should be getting our fair share of the work portraying who we're being seen as in the real world. It's only fair."

Media executives and ad agency directors, in an attempt to be politically correct, have been steering clear of using African-American actors in roles that would denigrate black Americans and magnify racial stereotypes, and it is felt by more conservative African-Americans that Mr. Seales is rowing against the current in making his demands. Nevertheless, he is supported by his group of more than 50 performers, most notably Port Whitman Playhouse leading man Bobby Davis, who recently garnered rave reviews for his stage portrayal of both twin brothers, one of whom died homeless of AIDS, and the other who became a world-class yodeler and mountain climber, then went on to a second career as a world-famous NeuroSurgeon. The scene where the twins meet, done with mirrors and recorded sound, is said to be a classic by local theatre buffs. Davis led the marchers, chanting in Ebonic "We be's de felons, or we keeps on wit de yellin'."

Choosing Ebonic over plain English, the group seeks to identify itself with the millions of other African-Americans who the group claims have been denied their rights and been refused employment in jobs for which they eminently qualify, and for which others, white actors, have been chosen simply as a political expedient. "We can play the bad guys because we KNOW the bad guys, know how they look, how they act, how they go about their business of robbery and the like, simply from our common life experiences in the black ghettoes, and we just want to be able to put that life experience to work in a constructive way. If that way is helping to warn the haves, and help protect them from the havenots who would take it away illegally, then we have made a substantial contribution to society, and been gainfully employed in the process."

"Why, just look at those stupid looking ofays made up in scraggly beards, with tattoos and cigarettes dangling from their lips. You might find them in prison, being had by every stud in the place, but no respectable African-American criminal would have anything to do with them on the job. They're trash and they look like trash, act like trash, and couldn't make any kind of a living doing the kind of theft you see them doing in these ads. That's a step UP for them. You want realism, then get a Black Man to do the job. That's why we're here," Davis continued. "And we're going to stay here until we get our fair due."

Harry McManaman, CEO of Roundtable Associates, producers of the ads for Castle Security Systems, tried to soften the situation, saying "We are just trying to sell product without offending anyone in the process, and we feel that the public sees enough African American criminals on the news, without having to look at them portrayed as such in the ads too. We didn't realize that by casting the ads in this way, we would be playing into the hands of those who would claim we discriminate in our casting process. We're just trying not to offend.

Martin Shlevey, Vice President in charge of Sales for Harbor Communications, owners of KROK-TV, concurred, publicly apologizing to Seales' group, and promised that he would ask advertisers to be more considerate in the future. Shown this sliver of hope, the demonstrators gradually disbanded, against the wishes of some of the more hard-core protagonists, but with the recognition by their leaders that a measure of progress had been made.

Henry Francisco, Special to

The Port Whitman Times